The "stocking filler" market

There is a highly exclusive market for an expensive connected object.  But the user feedback indicates that many fans are interested in a phone app which is cheaper, more versatile and can be used for more than one type of fandom.  As one user put it, "Your phone is a part of you".

So, one question is, what is there at the other end of the market?  What is the simplest, cheapest connected object that can be produced - and would users be interested in that?

The object I came up with was: an 8 pin micro-controller (ATTiny), single LED light, buzzer, button cell battery, a wired connection which plugs into the audio socket of any phone; all dressed up as a stick of celery.  A prototype can be produce for a few pounds - mass manufacture is likely to be even less.

These could be sold, along with an app, much more cheaply than an exclusive version.  The major dislike was the wired connection - so it might worth increasing the cost slightly and adding a wireless connection (probably bluetooth).  Interestingly, the technical side of this might feed into a more exclusive, highly miniature version (such as seed idea for this project, a "data ring").